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WHISTLEBLOWER MURDERED

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30 March 2005

Philippine authorities have created a task force to investigate the murder of Marilyn Garcia Esperat, an anti-corruption campaigner and newspaper columnist gunned down in Tacurong, Mindanao, on 24 March 2005.

Esperat, 45, was shot dead by two gunmen in front of her home after sending her bodyguards home for Easter. She had been under police protection because of articles she wrote in the weekly "Midland Review" which sharply criticised local corruption.

Shortly before her death, Esperat had written about nepotism in the town of Sultan Sa Barongis and the involvement of the Department of Agriculture's local office in the embezzlement of large sums of money, according to Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF).

Esperat was a former chemist at the Department of Agriculture who became one of its most potent critics, reports the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism. She accused the department of being one of the country's most corrupt government agencies. In the last 10 years, she had filed dozens of lawsuits ranging from the smuggling of agricultural products to the overpricing of farm inputs and the siphoning of public funds intended for farmers into private hands.

President Gloria Arroyo has pledged a "thorough investigation" into Esperat's murder. RSF says it will visit the country from 7-13 April to conduct its own investigation into the murders of journalists.

Key reports and information

Press freedom in the Philippines continued to be under attack from 2014 to 2015. The killing of journalists is continuing, with four journalists killed from May 2014 to May 2015. The trial of the accused masterminds of the Ampatuan (Maguindanao) Massacre and their supposed henchmen is continuing, but with a primary accused was released, while a witness in the same case was killed.

CMFR has issued a monograph report on the issues of journalists' safety, from the perspective of owners/their representatives. The report included discussions on how the owners see their responsibilities and their capacity to provide protection, the problems and what they perceive to be the most serious challenge to the protection of journalists

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